Title

Trainee Teachers To Face the Class

Author / Interviewer

South Western Times

Abstract / Article

“… Last week they were students, this week they are teachers. First-year teaching students from Bunbury's Edith Cowan University, Western Australia started their first real experience in primary school teaching this week, after just five weeks in the course. Education coordinator Dr. Dale Mason said at Bunbury's ECU campus, the catchword was 'praxis' - integration of theory and practice. He said most institutions don't send students on 'practicum' until about September, but at Bunbury, students learn theory and practice together. He admitted that it could be quite daunting for students just getting used to university to be sent out on practicum. ‘…Students go out with a lot of new ideas and fresh-faced inspiration … They are going out over a vast area, which extends as far north as Mandurah, east to Collie, and down to Manjimup and Bridgetown Dunsborough and Augusta.' Students Alexander Hayes, Laura Murray, Domenica Trimboli, and Steven Homer all said they were looking forward to the practicum but all admitted to a few worries. Mr. Homer said he was not looking | forward to the first moment of standing in front of a class of 20 or 30 children. ‘… But we've been put in front of classes at Uni to get us ready for it, and your peers judge you more than kids do,’ he said. This year the university has its highest ever intake of males into the traditionally female-dominated area of primary school teaching. Ms. Trimboli said the ‘orientation practicum’ would help a lot of them find out if teaching was really what they wanted to do.”

Keywords

education, pedagogy, teaching, trainee, practicum, students

Publisher

South Western Times

Publication Date

31st March 1992

Week

4

Page

14

Section

N/A

Suggested Citation

Trainee Teachers to Face the Class. (1992) South Western Times. Bunbury, Western Australia.

Links